Creating geo-enabled hand-drawn maps: an experiment of user-generated mobile mapping

Abstract

The current user-generated content (UGC) in mobile location-based services (LBS) is mainly bound to geographic points and represented based on web mappings. The authors have proposed a Human-Centered Mobile Mapping framework to integrate smartphones’ positioning functions with various maps including hand-drawn maps. The framework is able to extend the current extent of UGC to include user-created maps, and to increase the diversity of maps in mobile environments. With the mobile application prototype Manpo, user experiments of creating geo-enabled hand-drawn maps have been conducted to college students who have little background knowledge of cartography. The results of the experiments have proved the functionality and usability of Manpo, but have also revealed that the users’ skills and experiences can strongly influence the quality of the content, especially the accuracy of positioning. Typical mistakes in map drawings and deployments of points of interest (POIs) are analyzed in details. The experiments have prompted improvements of the positioning methods, and raised future research issues including effective guidelines, user interfaces and assisted georeference editing for nonprofessional users.